Measurement & Instrumentation

Toyota's Safety Recalls

Quality issues can be costly. Toyota just learned it the hard way, with a total cost of recalls estimated at $2 billion for just one quarter. Yikes! While safety recalls in the automotive industry are fairly common, it is not the only industry, or the industry being the most affected by such issues either. Take the baby goods/toys industry, for instance. According to ExpertRECALL, 2009 was the “Year of the Infant Product Recall”, as this industry saw an increase of 20 percent in product recalls from 2008 to 2009. In my opinion, this is a sign of the times we are currently evolving in. Manufacturers are have been struggling for the past 6 quarters due to the economic downturn, and although the market overall seems to be on the path to recovery, they remain cautious in their spending, trying to squeeze every penny they can from their suppliers while reducing operational costs as much as possible. To achieve this, they’ve cut corners. Unfortunately, testing is often one of them since the ROI of such equipment is sometimes difficult to quantify. The silver lining here, at least for the test & measurement industry, is that such events bring the focus back on testing as a critical mean to ensure quality.